Bill Clinton, the Comeback Kid now the Comeback President? ABC's World
News Tonight led Thursday night with a look at Bill Clinton's triumphant
return to New Hampshire and the CBS Evening News also aired a piece on his
trip north midway through its newscast. Both noted how the
"conservative" Manchester Union Leader did not exactly welcome
him back.

-- ABC's World
News Tonight. Peter Jennings opened:
"Good evening. One of the most skillful
political campaigners America has ever seen went back to the campaign
trail today. It's seven years ago today that Mr. Clinton managed to
finish second in the New Hampshire primary after weathering accusations
about affairs and draft dodging. He said then that New Hampshire made him
the comeback kid. Now Mr. Clinton would like to be the comeback
President."

Of course,
Jennings didn't bother to note that the accusations were all accurate,
something voters did not know at the time thanks to a less than aggressive
media.

Reporter John
Cochran began by asserting that most think Clinton kept his promise to
rebuild the economy but, he warned, "Not everyone welcomed him back.
Certainly not old enemies like Manchester's conservative newspaper which
still demands that he resign. But there were plenty who were eager to hear
him address their concerns about retirement and long term health
care."

-- CBS Evening News. Dan Rather announced:
"President Clinton's post impeachment
revival and redemption tour took him on the road to New Hampshire today
and especially on the campaign trail for Democrats hoping to re-take
control of Congress in election year 2000."
From New Hampshire Scott Pelley began: "For
the first time since his acquittal the President met the people face to
face. In New Hampshire the reaction was divided. The conservative local
paper called him 'a disgrace,' but Mr. Clinton wouldn't have started
this campaign anywhere else. It was New Hampshire that resurrected him
once before."
Pelley went on to show some clips of Clinton and
allow Senator Bob Smith, who announced Thursday for President, to argue
that Republicans must stick to conservative principles if they are to beat
Clinton.

Some conservative bias, at least in two editorials which confronted
Clinton on Thursday. Even better, they upset Geraldo Rivera who called the
editorials "rude." As noted in item #1, the Union Leader in
Manchester, New Hampshire greeted Bill Clinton with an editorial calling
him a "disgrace" and suggesting he resign and go home to
Arkansas.

On Thursday's
Upfront Tonight on CNBC Rivera misnamed the paper as he asked reporter
John Palmer: "Now how did they receive the President? I know the
Manchester Guardian, which is a very conservative newspaper, editorialized
against him, in a very rude way might I add. But how generally is he being
received?"

Since the front
page editorial is so short and reflects a certain frankness that only
someone like Union Leader publisher Nackey Loeb, who does not care about
political correctness, could express, here it is. From the February 18
Union Leader:

Don't come back, kid
A Presidential visit to New Hampshire used to be cause for some
celebration, something worthy of the highest office in our land, something
to bring the children to so that they, one day, could "tell the
grandkids."

New Hampshire has welcomed them all -- from
George Washington through Teddy Roosevelt and on up the line to Reagan and
Bush.

Even when it was purely political, it was
something special just to have the President of our country in our midst.

Not anymore. Not today. Not with this man.

His party has put politics above principle.
A goodly share of the public may be more interested in a healthy economy
than the moral health of their country. Granite Staters in general, a
polite and respectful lot, may feel compelled to be nice or at least to
hold their tongues.

But there is no reason to respect a man who
has shown so little respect for the people, the office, and the country.
He is a disgrace. The sooner he leaves New Hampshire, the better.

Since he has expressed a desire to continue
to serve the country, the best way he can do that is to stop by Washington
just long enough to pick up his toothbrush, turn in his resignation, and
head back to Arkansas. -- Nackey Loeb

Inside on Thursday
the Union Leader ran a hard-hitting editorial by Richard Lessner titled:
"You're Bill Clinton...and you get away with everything." It
ends: "You condemn the 'politics of personal destruction' even as
your smarmy character assassins smear your critics. You're Bill Clinton,
President of the United States, and you're not the least embarrassed being
defended by pornographer Larry Flynt. You're shameless. After all, you're
Bill Clinton."

Think concern for morality has declined in America? Well, we're a long
way from how low France has fallen, or always was. In France killing a lot
of people is bad, but murdering just one person is no big deal.

I learned this
from watching an illuminating story on the February 18 NBC Nightly News by
Fred Francis on the case of Ira Einhorn. He's the leftist activist in
Philadelphia who murdered his girlfriend in 1977 by chopping her up and
putting her body in a trunk in the closet of the apartment where he
continued to live until the body was discovered 18 months later. He fled
abroad and has been in France for at least the past ten years. A trial in
Philadelphia convicted him of murder in absentia. This week France finally
agreed to extradite him, but then released him pending his appeal, thus
allowing him to flee again

Francis reported
that he's been living in "a small farming village" where
people say "he's a peaceful man." Francis relayed that one
store owner "and others are determined not to let what they call
barbaric America snatch their rebellious folk hero. Einhorn has convinced
them that he is being persecuted by the CIA."

The French believe
his story that he was framed, Francis explained, adding: "Einhorn's
freedom has become a matter of French pride and defiance. According to
neighbor Daniel Antoine Einhorn has changed."
Antoine asserted: "If he was the Oklahoma
City bomber, I mean I would understand that [they] really badly need him.
But in this he's only accused of killing one person."

NBC is sitting on a Lisa Myers interview
with Juanita Broaddrick, who claims she was sexually assaulted by Bill
Clinton in 1978. Broaddrick said she was told her interview would air on
Dateline almost immediately after she talked with Myers. But Dateline has
two policies in dealing with women tied to Clinton: those who threaten his
legacy are trashed, while those who threaten his enemies' reputations are
promoted. Here's one clear Dateline contrast:

> Last Friday night, Jamie Gangel boiled
down her 20-minute unedited Today interview with Linda Tripp into a
13-minute attack piece. (See box.) Tripp was "The woman who not only
launched a national scandal but launched a thousand jokes. And the woman
who launched a wave of scorn."

A man on the street said: "I think
she's manipulative." A woman on the street added: "I don't think
much of her." Then Monica's father, Bernard Lewinsky, on tape:
"It's something that I don't know how she will ever live the rest of
her life knowing that she has so damaged a 'friend,' quote unquote."

Gangel repeated Tripp regretting her claim
"I'm like you," with Gangel insisting: "And I think America
resoundingly said 'no you're not.'" Gangel again bashed Lucianne
Goldberg, "a New York book agent, political bit player and an avowed
Clinton hater." She replayed her final volley: "When all is said
and done, Monica's life has been ruined. President Clinton remains in
office. The country has gone through a year of scandal which many people
blame you for. Was it worth it?"

> On November 27, 1998, Jane Pauley
awarded a much more sympathetic interview to Julie Hiatt Steele, who, it
could be argued, has betrayed her friend by first confirming Willey's
account of sexual advances by Clinton, then recanting. She even provided
an affidavit for Clinton's lawyers. (The idea that Broaddrick's decisions
to recant, then reaccuse Clinton of assault would make her unreliable for
NBC airwaves did not apply to Steele.)

Pauley began the segment: "Is it over
yet? Will it ever be over? Kenneth Starr's investigation of the President
would seem to be winding down even as the independent counsel is making
himself more visible than ever. But tonight, a woman who says every time
her name is mentioned in connection with the investigation, she gets hit
with another threatening letter from the independent prosecutor's office.
And for her, what began as a favor for a friend may yet, according to her
lawyer, get her slapped with an indictment for perjury." Starr did
indict her.

Pauley's segment had no critical talking
heads, no relatives of Willey, no Starr, no Michael Isikoff of Newsweek,
whom Steele is suing. (NBC relayed that Newsweek calls Steele's claims
"pure fantasy.") It was all about Starr: "Steele says
Starr's investigators have scrutinized everything about her so
relentlessly, they've made her life miserable."

Pauley promoted Steele's most heart-tugging
claim, that Starr was investigating her adoption: "After her
four-year-old baby died in her arms, Steele brought her son home from
Romania eight years ago...What evidence Starr's investigators are looking
for is unclear, or is it evidence that the Starr investigation is out of
control?" NBC didn't wait to "lock down" that story before
attacking Starr.

END Reprint of fax report text

Box showcasing a
contrast, from the center of the fax report:

Which "Betrayer" Gets Promoted?
"Linda Tripp, the woman many Americans hold responsible for the
year-long ordeal known as the Lewinsky affair. The woman who got it all
started by secretly taping her girlfriend, Monica Lewinsky..." --
Jamie Gangel on Dateline, February 12, 1999.

Vs.

"Julie Hiatt Steele is a woman whose
15 minutes of fame was an unwanted consequence of doing a favor for a
friend and it could land her in jail...She believes Kenneth Starr wants to
hear her say something and will do almost anything to get her to say
it." -- Jane Pauley on Dateline, November 27, 1998.

Homicide reminder. Friday night at 10pm ET/PT NBC airs part two of the Law
& Order/Homicide crossover with a Ken Starr-like independent counsel
as the villain blocking a murder investigation.

As detailed in the
February 18 CyberAlert, on Wednesday's Law & Order a New York City
prosecutor accused the IC, "William Dell," of leaking and after
Dell asked irrelevant personal questions of the prosecutor's sex life,
recalling McCarthy the prosecutor pleaded: "Have you no shame."
To read more, go to the CyberAlert: http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/cyberalert/1999/cyb19990218.html#5

A video clip from
the show is now featured on the MRC home page.

I haven't forgotten about CNN's town meeting and will get to it in the
next CyberAlert. -- Brent Baker

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